Those Dangerous Abilities
by Corvus corone
Summary: Series of drabbles focussing on the members of the Dangerous Abilities class. No. 5 - Hayate Matsudaira. He's a nice guy, really, even if he is a bit of a pushover.
1. Rui Amane

**Rui Amane.**

Rui was pretty much alright with the way things were.

Having an 'evil' Alice, working in the Dangerous Abilities class, being gay... strangely enough, Rui didn't really mind any of that now. He supposed he was getting used to it. And really, none of it was anything too bad.

He had gotten used to life with the Dangerous Abilities a long time ago. Having been stuck there for so many years, well, that might have been expected. He had reached the point where he almost _enjoyed _the missions the school forced him on - and if truth be told, he enjoyed using his Alice too. As sadistic as it was, he enjoyed that feeling of power, of pain, of knowing that he could hold someone captive within a dark cloud of curses, and he revelled in it.

Not surprisingly, other people didn't exactly like his Curse Alice. Rui might have cared about this years ago, but now - it was nothing new. He'd lived with hate his whole life - from his parents, from his classmates, the cute boys in the year below - and it was just another thing he'd simply gotten used to. The endless name-calling, the dirty looks, the heavy blame-filled silence as his presence interrupted another conversation, the whispers behind his turned back... none of it fazed him any more. He just grinned and played along.

In some ways, he was truly grateful for it. If people didn't give him a chance, then he damn well couldn't take it. And if they already hated him at the beginning, it really didn't matter to him if he reinforced that opinion. All those things that he would have otherwise been scared to do; well, what did that matter now?

So he put his mark on Tsubasa and the rest, made sure they knew exactly how he felt about them, tortured whoever the Academy ordered him to, giggled at all of their pain and their pleading... it felt like freedom. And what was more, he still had friends - those others like him forced into the Dangerous Abilities class. Hayate the joker, Hajime always there for anyone, Natsume the grumpy rebel, Nobara almost like a sweet little sister... like family.

So yes, he was alright with it, really. No, more than that: he was _happy _with it.

If there was one thing that Rui was, completely and utterly, it was true to himself.

xox

_A/N: I love the DA class so here are some drabbles. I personally think they're all rather dark characters (however much Rui might be in love with Tsubasa, he has no qualms about torturing him through a punishment mark to molest him or whatever) who deserve some attention._


	2. Youichi Hijiri

**Youichi Hijiri.**

To be honest, Youichi didn't exactly think about very much. He was very young; it was understandable. He thought about how cold and dark and sleepy the missions were and how he would cry if Natsume didn't come with him, and he thought about how strange it was that everyone else seemed to be _afraid_ of his ghosts. He didn't think about why.

Youichi didn't know very much either. The idea of being at the Academy as opposed to being with his parents didn't mean anything to him. The idea that toddlers should live in a nice family home with proud parents and a doting big brother was something that had never entered his mind - and why should it? Perhaps in the back of his mind there was a still the vague memories of the woman who had raised him and perhaps a father looking down with some expression that Youichi didn't understand. But he didn't think about that any more. It had been a long time.

He thought about his new big brother Natsume, who took him to the noisy happy place and gave him sweet pink cotton wool when he pointed at it. The other people who the masked man talked to like he did to Natsume and himself, they didn't really talk to Youichi. Natsume wouldn't let them. He said that they were not nice people. And Natsume was a nice person because he taught Youichi words and gave him nice food, so he must be telling the truth.

He thought about those loud girls who seemed to always be with Natsume nowadays, the green-haired one and the brown-haired one. Natsume said he didn't like them very much either, but Youichi didn't think he sounded very convincing.

He rather liked those girls now. The happy brown-haired one especially, Mikan. Youichi liked her smile and her laugh and her friendly voice and the way that she was friends with the whole world and more. She gave him more to love than Natsume had ever given, and Natsume had given a lot. But whereas Natsume was cold and hard, even when shielding Youichi from the masked man Persona's punishments and even when hugging him tightly as they walked out into the world, Mikan was warm and passionate and Youichi loved her. True, she had been silly and annoying and tried to steal his candy once, but that was also a long time ago.

Youichi wondered if his mother had been like that. Mikan said that everyone had a mother. Even she couldn't remember her own mother, but she said that that was no reason to say that she didn't exist. Then she had hugged Youichi and started crying, which made Youichi get confused and sad at the same time.

He was too young; it had been too long. He couldn't remember.

xox

_I always feel sorry for these DA kids..._


	3. Nobara Ibaragi

**Nobara Ibaragi**

Nobody really liked Nobara. The Ice Princess, the Snow Woman; as strange and as terrible as the thin ice she was, beauty and horrors somehow married in one small girl. For one thing, she was a Dangerous Abilities student - who knew what those kids got up to, under the eyes of Persona? And for another thing, well, she was just... _creepy_. Pretty as a porcelain doll, and as eerie as one too. People whispered about a split mind, about the kind of severe mental trauma that could have produced such a tear, about what exactly the Dangerous Abilities did for the school, about her exact 'relationship' with Persona...

Sometimes, Nobara agreed with them. She knew that there was _something_ keeping her apart from the others, even apart from her Dangerous Ability family. And there might have been other times when she would have sat in the dark alone and despairing - only of course, she was never alone. The other side of herself, the side that Nobara could not control or feel or be; _she_ was always there. Nobara had mixed feelings on this matter - after all, she could not remember a time when the other had not been with her. The other did the hard work that Nobara never saw, and she was glad that she did have to witness or remember the pain of her mission victims or the torture of those arduous tasks. She never cried at night about the evil her Alice had done; the other never told her.

And yet, there were those times when Nobara wished more than anything for the other to be gone. Therein lay the reason why she was 'creepy' - surely her classmates could sense that cold presence within her! Those times were when Nobara wanted to feel the heat of the sun on her back, join in and laugh in the brightness that the rest of the school shared... but something, the voice of the Dangerous class, gripped her heart and warned her to stop.

And she wouldn't have hurt Mikan - that small warmth in her icy world - when she wandered into the underground. Mikan was sweet and happy and didn't deserve this place, didn't deserve _her_; Nobara knew who Mikan deserved, and she was happy for her and Natsume and the other children. They walked in the sunlight and she watched.

She wanted to cry, but the tears froze - the other within herself whispered and took her hand, bringing her to Persona.

Her beloved.

Nothing changes.

xox

_A/N: Nobara probably has some sort of dissociative identity disorder caused by the trauma of working for the Dangerous class (starting off as a self-defence mechanism, so that she wouldn't remember the horrific things she did)._


	4. Hajime Yakumo

**Hajime Yakumo.**

The world spun, and Hajime didn't care.

Life passed. People laughed, Alices were trained, pupils studied, and missions were completed. Somewhere along the way, Hajime's life had fallen into apathetic monotony.

He wasn't quite sure how he had managed it. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism - Natsume seemed to be heading down the same route, after all. Once Hajime had got past his original distaste at the tasks ordered of him by the Academy... well, he couldn't remember feeling anything since. That time when he would have questioned the ethics of Persona's commands, would rather have suffered Rui's torture than obey those hideous orders, and perhaps taken a stand, refused to call up his insects for anything as morally debatable as paralysing a little kid trying to save his blind sister - how many ages ago had that time been? Now what was it - crippled emotions, frozen feelings, stunted sensations.

Hajime didn't enjoy his work like Rui did, and he didn't escape from his work like the others did. He wasn't happy with the world, but nor did he hate it. There was no tomorrow to look forward to - and no yesterday to grieve for. He merely survived. He watched the days go by and he watched the time fly by - he watched pain, pleasure and poison, never feeling, only watching. He looked after his classmates, he helped Persona, he fed Aoi - and never spent a shred of emotion. Perhaps it was safer that way.

His truth was, _nothing ever changes_. The future was dark, but at least it was the same. People lived, people died, but this hidden underbelly of the Academy would always remain. Let them have their optimism and hope and dreams - but Hajime's life was monotony, and not once had it even been different. Not even the burn on his face or Persona's broken charms (and with it, Aoi's escape) had changed anything, no, not really. And next year, despite Hayate's optimistic attempts to persuade Hajime to the contrary, it would still be the same - maybe not with Persona, maybe not with the Academy, but some other clone of Kuonji's. The world turns ever and ever on. No new year is different.

What is there to care for, when nothing really matters?

He had stopped asking that question a long time ago.

xxx

_A/N: I believe Anna (MHR) asked nicely for Hajime's drabble, so here it is. A guy that we know point-blank-nothing about._


	5. Hayate Matsudaira

**Hayate Matsudaira**

Hayate was a pretty easygoing guy. It was easier than fighting back, and Hayate wasn't really a fighter. He just let it wash past. Insults were brushed off, failed crushes were forgotten (until this one, at least), missions were completed with the minimum of fuss, and the world walked all over him.

Not that many people really talked to him, though. The closest thing he had to a friend in his class was Tsubasa, who he suspected only bothered saying "Hello," to him out of pity. The rest of them liked to pretend that he didn't exist, except for the small gleam of fear and disgust when their eyes happened to meet his. Not exactly Mr. Popular, then. It was ironic, though, because Hayate thought himself to be a rather decent kind of guy – he'd have gladly done anything for anyone if only they'd asked him. Hayate didn't know how Natsume did it; how he was the only person in the Dangerous Abilities to have some sort of social life outside of it.

Still, he was trying. Hayate refused to be demoralised by his latest failed attempt to capture Hotaru's (Cool Blue Sky's, he thought) heart. No matter how many times Rui laughed at him, messed up his hair and called him an idiotic fool for love too young for him anyway - not that Rui could talk, really - or how many times Hajime sighed and shook his head about the whole deal. No matter how many bruises her baka gun had given him, or how large his tally of "rejections" grew. All this effort, all this longing – it just made him all the more determined. For now, he was content to follow her footsteps, fetch her lunch, carry her books, anything and everything for her, and be duly abused for it. It hurt but it was _her _and that, even that small acknowledgment, was enough. He loved...

"You're a loser, Hayate," Rui had told him.

"Cool," Hayate had replied.

"Don't you care?"

"No."

And it was true. He hadn't won the world today, but so what?

Hayate never gave up.

xx

_A nicely hopeful tone. :) I think it was Ah Hael who mentioned the whole Hotaru/Hayate dom/sub relationship, so... yeah. I like the idea._

_I read somewhere (on wiki, probably) that he likes boys as well? Or something? Well I don't remember reading that in the manga (will have to wait until the English one comes out) so I haven't mentioned that, but that might also be interesting to think about._


End file.
